Curators in Tennessee
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$48,446
after federal, FICA and Tennessee tax
Tax takes
$9,134
15.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$52,365
Tennessee costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Tennessee — roughly, since only five points along the band are published.
One filer, standard deduction, no dependants and nothing paid in before tax — the same household the rest of this page uses, so the comparison holds. City and school-district income taxes are not included.
Median here
$57,580
Kept after tax
$48,446
Worth in national money
$52,365
State rank
35
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Tennessee pays curators a middle wage of $57,580, 35 of 49 states and about 9.21% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Against other work in Tennessee, this sits in the middle: 229 of 491 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Tennessee is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $57,580 the take-home is $48,446; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $52,365 would nationally. The average comes to $61,280, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Tennessee's $57,580 median for curators places it 35 of 49 states, about 9.21% below national. Because both the tax and price adjustments tend to favor lower-nominal states, this ranking is the least stable of the three reported here.
- Curators ranks 229 of 491 occupations in Tennessee by median pay, in the middle bands. Within-state and national positions are separate measurements and a job commonly sits in different quartiles on each.
- Post-tax income for curators in Tennessee, on $57,580, is $48,446 — equivalent to $52,365 once regional price parity is applied. ⚠️ The adjustment uses a statewide index that describes no particular address; within-state price variation, concentrated in housing, routinely exceeds the difference between two states. At $61,280 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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Pay band: Curators
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $32,960 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $57,580 |
| Top tenth earn over | $89,130 |
| This salary | $57,580 |
Positions between the published tenth, quarter, half, three-quarter and ninetieth points are estimated by straight line.
The same pay, somewhere else
The state median for this job
| Take-home in Tennessee | $48,446 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $48,446 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,511 |
The raise and the real gain point in opposite directions here.
State income tax and state price levels only. No city income tax, and no housing market.
What you would need there
The state median for this job
| To match take-home only | $57,580 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$3,037 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 93 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $57,580 as a midpoint for Tennessee, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $32,960 and the ninetieth is $89,130 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $48,446 take-home in Tennessee comes from $57,580. It is the no-frills case: single filer, standard deduction, nothing set aside before tax. Real circumstances almost always reduce the tax. City and school-district taxes are not counted at all. Locally the work ranks 229 of 491.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $52,365 uses one figure for the whole of Tennessee. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 491 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 229.
- The Tennessee median of $57,580 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $32,960 to $89,130. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Retained pay of $48,446, from $57,580, assumes a single Tennessee filer with the standard deduction and no elective deferrals. Pre-tax retirement or HSA contributions, dependants and itemized deductions all reduce it further; local income taxes, excluded here, would increase it in the states that levy them. This occupation ranks 229 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 35 of 49 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $52,365, worked from $57,580, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular Tennessee address, on work sitting at 229 of 491 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $61,280, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $32,960 and the top tenth $89,130 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Tennessee sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $52,365 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $48,446 of this wage reaches your account, because Tennessee takes no income tax from wages — but federal tax, Social Security and Medicare still apply exactly as they do everywhere else.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 49 states here, and a missing state means too few reports, not no jobs.
How does the published median differ from the mean for this occupation?
The median is the midpoint of the distribution; the mean for this occupation in Tennessee is $61,280. Wage distributions are right-skewed, so the mean exceeds the median wherever a minority earn substantially more. BLS publishes both because substituting one for the other misstates a typical worker's pay.
What drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($32,960) and the ninetieth ($89,130) exceeds the family median dispersion. SOC codes aggregate roles differing in seniority, industry and specialisation, and BLS does not disaggregate below the detailed occupation level, so within-title variance is not separable from the published series.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Tennessee's regional price parity is at or below the national average, so nominal wages understate purchasing power. Take-home deflated by the state price level is $52,365 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.
Why is the take-home ratio comparatively high in this state?
Tennessee levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $48,446 reflects the federal layer and FICA alone. Federal income tax and FICA are unchanged; states without a wage income tax generally recover revenue through consumption and property bases instead.
Why does this occupation lack published estimates in every state?
BLS suppresses estimates failing disclosure or reliability criteria. This occupation has published state-level estimates in 49 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.